Ctg Chora Market: Where you can find your stolen goods
Just a few days after Eid-ul-Fitr, fish trader Sultan Ahmed's shoes were stolen from a mosque in the Fishery Ghat area in Chattogram. Two days later, he found the shoes at a footpath shop in the city's New Market area. He bought back his stolen shoes worth Tk2,000 for Tk800.
Sultan told The Business Standard, "I knew the stolen shoes were sold here. So I tried my luck and found them."
All the goods stolen in Chattogram city are sold in sidewalk shops on Station Road. That is why the whole area from the city's Old Station to the New Station has become famous as "Chora Market (Stolen Good Market)" in the last four decades.
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One can find varieties of secondhand products like shoes, clothes, watches, mobile phone sets, and household goods in the flea market. The police demolished all the shops there in a raid in 2019, but after the Covid-19 pandemic subsided, traders have set up shops in the area again.
How Chora Market developed
Soon after independence, Noor Islam, a resident of Nazirhat area in Chattogram first opened a shop on footpath in the Old Station area. Later, others opened footpath shops in the Station Road area in 1973. Initially, they sold fruits, but later they started selling secondhand clothes.
At that time, peddlers used to go to homes in different areas of the city and collect old clothes in exchange of aluminium pots and pans. They sold the clothes to footpath shop owners in Station Road, who washed and resold those garments.
Initially, there were only a handful of shops selling secondhand goods, but currently, there are over 200 shops.
Along with the main railway station, there are also many bus counters in the New Market area, which attracted thieves, robbers, and pickpockets. They provided a steady supply of stolen goods like watches, bags, shoes, and clothes to the footpath shop owners in the area.
Owners of footpath shops in the Old Station area formed "Chattogram Metropolitan Hawkers' Association" in 1993 with 160 members. Currently, only 45 of the shops registered with the organisation are operating.
To stop the sale of stolen goods, in 2008 the Hawkers' Association and the police formed a committee which monitored the area throughout the day. In 2019 police evicted all the sellers of secondhand goods from the area, but they gradually returned there.
Recently, when our correspondent was talking to a shop owner in Chora Market, cops arrived there with a thief to recover a stolen mobile phone and a pair of shoes. The shop owner kept the shoes for himself, so he returned them immediately, but the police could not recover the mobile phone as the thief apparently failed to identify its buyer. At one point, the cops let the thief go and left the area.
The thief told TBS that he stole the pair of shoes and the mobile phone from a shop in the Tiger Pass area a couple of days ago. He got caught when he tried to steal speakers from another shop in the area on the next day. The shop owner beat him up before handing him over to the police, who brought him to Chora Market to recover the stolen goods.
"Sending a small thief like me to the court is a waste of the taxpayer's money. That is why the cops let me go. I also did not point out the person to whom I sold the mobile phone," the thief told TBS.
Chora Market attracts buyers of secondhand phones
Chora Market became popular after 2000, when more and more people started using mobile phones in the country. All the mobile phones stolen by pickpockets or thieves in the port city were brought there and sold for a small price.
Due to the low prices of stolen mobile phones, Chora Market gained popularity quickly. Over 100 shops in Chora Market showcased thousands of stolen phones – ranging from low priced feature phones to expensive smartphones – at that time.
The secondhand shop owners changed the "International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI)" number before selling them. They also sold accessories like original mobile phone chargers, cables, batteries, and earphones.
Saiful Islam, a businessman from the city's Khulshi area, told TBS, "I bought a mobile phone of Sony Ericsson from Chora Market for just Tk8,000 in 2012, when I was a student. At that time, the actual price of that phone was Tk17,000."
Thieves target Eid celebrations
Usually people buy new clothes along with shoes during Eid-ul-Fitr and start wearing them when they go out for the Eid prayer. Thieves also start their activities at that time.
On condition of anonymity, a number of shop owners of Chora Market told TBS that thieves steal shoes throughout the year, but they especially target the Eid season as they get new shoes at that time. New shoes fetch high prices. There are over 100 shops selling stolen shoes in Chora market, which get a steady supply from the local thieves.
A shop owner in Chora Market told TBS, "Good quality shoes of many reputed brands are sold at reasonable prices in Chora Market. Some thieves steal shoes every day and sell them here. Depending on the condition of the shoes, we wash and polish them before selling."
Fake products marketed as stolen originals
Chora Market became popular for selling secondhand original products, but within a short time, the shops there were flooded with fake products.
Many of the shop owners started selling old damaged phones after repairing them nominally, saying that those were stolen phones in good condition. Such mobile phones stop working within a few days, frustrating the buyers.
Fake shoes of famous brands are also sold in the flea market. After making fake shoes in local factories, the Chora Market shop owners intentionally wear them out to sell them as secondhand original products.
Currently, most of the good quality stolen products are sold in the nearby Jalsha Market, said the traders.
